PR's Bad Rap

Every time I tell someone what my major is I get the same response: "oh...spin." That's what everyone thinks public relations is...spin. In fact, when I went to my cell phone company to get a new phone plan the salesman asked me what my major was right away. When I told him I was a PR major he said, "Oh, so you're going to be the master of spin?" I just laughed and refuted the accusation, but it annoyed me a little bit.

Although I realize that I'm just a lowly student and I have pretty limited experience in actual PR, but the experience that I do have seems to tell me the opposite of what everyone else thinks. I have never pulled a PR stunt or tried to spin anything. I don't think I could even if I wanted to. None of my professors have ever taught me how to put spin on a bad situation with a client. In fact, the only thing my professors have told me about spin is that it's not the way PR should be done. As upcoming PR professionals several of my professors have challenged my classmates and me to raise the reputation of PR professionals everywhere. Although I plan to do everything I can to accomplish this task, it just saddens me that it has to be done.

I'm sure there are plenty of bad PR practitioners. After all, the reputation had to come from somewhere. However, I think and sincerely hope that the new generation of PR professionals are determined to do it right and change the currently ugly face of PR.

I know there are plenty of other people in public relations who feel the same way, like John Wagner, who recently posted on his blog about PR's bad reputation. Everyone in the PR industry needs to operate in an ethical manner and work hard to show the country that our industry is more than just spin. We need to combat feelings like this.

New Media vs. Old Media

I recently read a blog post entitled "We only have a finite amount of time on our hands" that discussed the weight of You Tube and other new types of media on the world today. Basically, it said that there just aren't enough hours in the day to see everything. With all the new entertainment and information choices, the older forms of media are suffering a downfall.

Believe me, I understand the time constraints that most of us live under. Between school, work, job searching, spending time with friends and family and everything else there just never seems to be enough time in the day. However, no matter how busy I am I always seem to find time to do something that I enjoy. I will find a way to do something for myself, even if I just sit down and watch TV for half an hour or surf the Internet for awhile. I think it's important, not just to me, but to a lot of people. That's why I think there will be room for the new media options without completely wiping out the old ones. People can take some time and listen to podcasts and watch You Tube, but I bet they won't give up their favorite TV show in favor of them. I know I wouldn't.

While I agree that these new types of media pose some competition for the older types, I think variety is good. New technology is great. It's important to be able to get your information from several different sources. However, I do not think that these new types of media will edge out TV, newspapers and radio shows.

Also, TV allows you to multitask. People can do almost anything while watching TV. They can make dinner, do homework, clean, etc. while having the TV on for entertainment or background noise. But it would be much harder to do those things while surfing the Internet or watching You Tube.

The Job Search Rears its Ugly Head

The whole idea of job searching started to overwhelm me a little today, so I decided to do some online searching for tips, ideas, job postings and anything else that might be helpful. Lucky for me it didn't take long until I came across this amazing Web site, All About Public Relations. This site's title says it all. It has everything, including job postings, interview tips, general information on different types of PR and just about anything you could ever want to know about public relations. As my job searching progresses I plan to use this site frequently.

Cori McKeever, a PR practitioner at one of America's largest healthcare PR agencies, gives practical advice for upcoming graduates on the site. She mentioned one thing in particular that struck me as incredibly important and I realized that I need to work on this aspect the most. She said that PR professionals, especially at entry level, need to be confident but not cocky. While I would not consider myself cocky, I have trouble portraying myself as confident. Even at my internship last summer I had trouble expressing my opinions and as a result I missed out on valuable experiences.

So far my job search progress has mainly consisted of working on my resume (to make it the best that it can possibly be) and researching a few companies and PR agencies in places I would consider living. It's hard to juggle school, work and job searching. I'm sure it will become more and more time consuming as the semester goes on and I get closer to graduation, but it's just one of those things you have to do. Besides, if I'm planning on becoming a PR professional I need to get used to a busy lifestyle.

This is Me

My name is Whitney and this is my first experience as a blogger. I'm a senior PR major at the University of Georgia. Since I'm graduating in May I am currently job searching amongst all of my other school and extra curricular tasks.

I created this blog as an assignment for my PR Campaigns class, which is the capstone course for public relations majors. In addition to this blogging project we will complete an entire PR campaign plan for a client throughout this semester in this course. I am the assistant account executive for my team and our client is the Home Depot Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting urban forestry and afforddable housing in communities.

I am also involved in a couple of other projects and organizations around campus. I am part of Creative Consultants, a student run PR firm. My team's client is the American Cancer Society and we are currently working to organize a skin cancer awareness campaign on campus. I am also on the PR Committee for Relay for Life and we are working to promote the Relay for Life event and all of the fundraisers that are connected with it. We are also working to do some fundraising of our own.

This post is just a brief overview of me and some of my activities. I plan to use this blog to discuss many aspects of PR as well as any relevant PR experience I encounter in my classes, activities and life in general.